India’s Rahul Gandhi Vows Battle While Avoiding Spotlight

Rahul Gandhi, vice president of India's National Congress, speaks during the "Meet the Press" programme at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on Sept. 27, 2013. Photographer: Virendra Singh Gosain/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- India’s Rahul Gandhi pledged a fight
to retain power in elections due by May while avoiding the
pressure of being named as the Congress Party’s official prime
ministerial candidate as it faces a resurgent opposition.

The scion of India’s foremost political dynasty said his
party remains popular as it had implemented policies that
empowered the poor since taking power in Asia’s third-biggest
economy a decade ago. Opinion polls show Congress losing to the
Bharatiya Janata Party, with both falling short of a majority.

“We will go into this battle as warriors with our heads
held high,” Gandhi told Congress leaders from around the
country yesterday as they chanted “Long Live Rahul Gandhi.”
“We will fight with everything we have within us.”

The party’s decision to avoid projecting Gandhi as its next
head of government came as leaders met to devise a strategy to
head off a challenge from Narendra Modi, the prime minister
candidate declared by the BJP. Under Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh’s government, backed by the Gandhis, India faces the risk
of a credit-rating downgrade as inflation remains elevated and
economic growth lingers near a 10-year low.

“It is too late for a course correction, and this attempt
by Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to be fruitful,” said A.S. Narang,
professor of political science at the New Delhi-based Indira
Gandhi National Open University. “The tone and tenor is part of
the election theatrics.”

Disappointment

Gandhi said elected members of parliament will choose the
prime minister according to the country’s constitution if
Congress retains power. President Sonia Gandhi on Jan. 16
rejected calls from party executives to name Rahul as the formal
prime ministerial candidate.

The move irked some members of the party, which the Gandhi
family has controlled most of the time since India won
independence from Britain in 1947.

“I am disappointed 100 percent,” said Vikas Upadhyay, 34,
a party leader from Chhattisgarh state in eastern India.
“People want transparency in politics. It would be better to
project a young, dynamic prime minister against Modi.”

Congress made a tactical choice to avoid naming Rahul as
its candidate to protect him in a difficult election, according
to Satish Misra, a political analyst at the Observer Research
Foundation, a policy group based in New Delhi.

“They don’t want to put Gandhi’s image at risk when
Congress is facing one of its worst battles in history,” Misra
said. “It will not make a huge difference as they have made it
clear that Rahul Gandhi will be the prime minister if the party
retains power.”

‘New Blood’

The rupee rose 0.6 percent this week to 61.5500 per dollar
in Mumbai, the biggest gain since the five days through Dec. 6.
The currency was little changed yesterday. The S&P BSE Sensex
retreated 1 percent to 21,063.62 at the close, the most since
Jan. 2. For the week, the index rose 1.5 percent.

At a packed stadium yesterday, about 4,000 party leaders
and workers shouted for Rahul to be announced as the prime
ministerial candidate. In his speech, the 43-year-old Gandhi
vowed to bring “new blood and thought” to the party while
promising to tighten anti-corruption laws, provide cheap cooking
gas and improve facilities for health and education.

Politicians from the Hindu-nationalist BJP, which began a
three-day meeting starting on Jan. 17, mocked the ruling party.

‘Clueless’

“Congress is clueless on what they want to do,” Rajiv
Pratap Rudy, a BJP leader and former government minister, said
by phone. “It’s a lost battle for them.”

Gandhi’s family has dominated Congress and Indian politics
for more than six decades, and he’s faced high expectations
since he was first elected to parliament in 2004.

His great-grandfather was Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first
prime minister. Indira Gandhi, his grandmother, led the country
for more than 15 years before her assassination in 1984.

She was succeeded by Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul’s father, who lost
power in 1989 and was killed by a suicide bomber two years
later. Sonia Gandhi has been Congress president since 1998.

“The Congress party is putting this distraction of
candidacy behind them and moving on,” said B.G. Verghese, a
political analyst at the Centre for Policy Research in New
Delhi. “They have a tremendous campaign advantage in being able
to lead a government and pass legislation that could sway voters
in the months before the election. Let’s see if they use that
advantage.”